January Wrap-Up

Okay, wow. I’m so sorry, I just completely disappeared. I actually wrote this post almost three weeks ago, and then just forgot to post it. Great job Iris. Really great job. Ive already failed most of my goals, but I’m keeping them in, so I can look back on them next month. Er, which means in a week or so. oops. Anyways, here’s my original post:

January was… not the best month ever. What with reading slumps, blogging slumps, and being sick for most of the month… It could have been a lot better. However, I also read some really amazing books, and had a pretty good month life-wise. Other than, you know, being sick for half of it. Okay, January really wasn’t the best month for me.

I read seventeen books this month, which seems fairly good… I was hoping to read a couple more than that, but still, seventeen books is pretty good. It’s just not, when you take into account the fact that I spent most of the month sitting on the couch doing nothing, and therefore had a lot of time to read. But I kept either being to sick to concentrate, or tried to play music while I was reading and got distracted, and who even knows what else. I certainly don’t.

Tales From the Shadowhunter Academy by Cassandra Clare – I loved this. I loved this so much. I mean, it’s Simon! Of course I loved it! – 5 stars!

The Unexpected Everything by Morgan Matson – This book was light and fluffy, but also absolutely amazing, and I adored it! Plus! It! Had! A! Homeschooled! Character! Who wasn’t an idiot! AHHHHHHHHHHHHH!! Thank you so much Morgan Matson for including this!!! – 5 stars!!

Strange the Dreamer by Laini Taylor – I finally got around to reading Strange the Dreamer, and WHY ON EARTH DID I WAIT SO LONG?!?!?!?!?!* Laini Taylor’s writing is utterly enchanting, and this book was an absolute delight! – 5 stars!!!

*Oh yeah, it was because I don’t own it, and was waiting to borrow it from a friend. Still, WHY?!?!

Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo – I really enjoyed this book… I gave it five stars immediately after finishing it, but after thinking about it, I think I got a little bit swept up in the hype surrounding Leigh Bardugo, and rated it a little higher than it really deserved. – 4 stars.

Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor – Wow, Laini Taylor has a spectacularly twisted imagination! And I mean that as a compliment. I don’t know how anyone could possibly come up with worlds like hers, because they are so rich, and dark, and twisted! – 5 stars!

The Young Elites by Marie Lu – I really enjoyed this! I had a really hard time deciding what to rate it though… Like I really liked it, and I can’t really think of anything I didn’t like about it, I just didn’t quite love it… – 4 stars.

Before She Ignites by Jodi Meadows – I was really excited for this book, and… Well… It was good, and I thoroughly enjoyed it… I was just a little bit disappointed. It was really slow, and ninety percent of the book took place in a prison. I liked it, and I have high hopes for the next book, but it could have been a lot better, and it certainly isn’t for everyone. – 4 stars.

The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas – Oh, wow! This book was absolutely horrifying, but oh my gosh, it was amazing as well. It’s SO awful that this is based on reality, and it made me so mad at humanity, but wow, this was such an important book! – 5 stars.

No Talking by Andrew Clements – Andrew Clements practically was my childhood. My mum loved his books, and would read them to me from a very young age. I loved them. So when my mum got this one out from the library for my brother to read, naturally I was curious to see what I thought now. And, well… I enjoyed it, I guess, but the characters were super petty and immature. – 3 stars.

The Upside of Unrequited by Becky Albertalli – Ummmm… So, if you’ve been around my blog for any time at all, you might remember from my from my December wrap up that I read this book in December. I didn’t mean to reread it exactly, but I’ve got my mum reading it, and seeing it on the coffee table… Well, I might have accidentally picked it up. And read it. Instead of my library book. Oops.
But honestly? I have no regrets. None at all. Molly is just so darn relatable, and I absolutely adore this book! – 5 stars!

Half Bad by Sally Green – I wanted to enjoy this book, I really did. I just… couldn’t. I was bored. There were a couple of small side characters I sort of cared about, but other than that, I just couldn’t bring myself to care about anything. Also something about the writing made this book seem really young to me… Like, it’s YA, but on the younger side of YA, and I just felt almost too old for it. – 2.5 stars.

Heartless by Marissa Meyer – I don’t know why I bothered to read this. I knew I wouldn’t like it very much, but it was Marissa Meyer, so I had to try it. And I am glad I read it. The writing was amazing, the food descriptions were mouth-watering, and Jest absolutely captured my heart. My main problem with this book (Other than the fact that I was bored out of my mind…), was simply that I don’t like Alice in Wonderland very much. This was a good book. It just wasn’t for me. – 3 stars.

Ruined by Amy Tintera – This was a reread,* and let me just say I loved it just as much this time around as I did the first. – 5 stars!

The Anatomical Shape of a Heart by Jenn Bennett – This. Book. Was. Amazing. I was so swept up in it I barely stopped to do anything else. I didn’t even bother to let Goodreads know I’d started it, and trust me, that’s saying something. I picked it up on a whim, with fairly low expectations, and WOW, am I ever glad I did! – 5 stars!

Daughter of the Flames by Zoë Marriott – This book was very disappointing. It was SOOOOOOO boring, there was no plot, no character development, and insta-love. All I enjoyed about this book was the last sixty pages, which admittedly were really good. But the rest of the book sucked, sooo… – 2 stars.

*That mostly came about due to me being in a book slump, and it being the only book in the house I even sort of wanted to read. I was hoping it would get me out of my slump. It didn’t, but I have no regrets.

Three Dark Crowns by Kendare Blake – Why on earth had I not read this before?! Why did nobody tell me how amazing this was?! Although I totally went into this thinking it was set in historical England, just with magic, and that was incredibly wrong, and probably why this book never appealed to me all that much. – 5 stars!

A Shadow Bright and Burning by Jessica Cluess – I quite enjoyed this, but it didn’t live up to it’s gorgeous cover. it could have been a much stronger book than it was. As it was, it was too predictable, the stakes felt too low, and there was an annoying love triangle. Or, um… Love square? – 3.5 stars.

I only got one book this month, which after the seven I got in December, is a bit disappointing, although it was a very good book, and it has an absolutely gorgeous cover, so I’m happy! But I haven’t set foot in a bookstore all month, and I desperately want to.

Do you remember how last month I was disappointed to have only posted five times in December? And how I planned to post consistently, and frequently? No, me neither. I’m pretty sure you’re making that up, in fact.*
Because I definitely scheduled a hiatus, and planned to post only twice this month. Uh-huh. No? Nobody else remembers that? HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! You must all just have bad memories then. Because I definitely did that.

Um, okay, maybe not. Maybe, just maybe I was in a bit of a blogging slump, and couldn’t motivate myself to post, and then forgot blogging existed, and just really sucked at blogging this month. Anyways, I’m hoping to do better next month, but February is also going to be really busy for me, sooo…

*Don’t question how you could be making up something that I said. Just don’t.

Um… my life… Yeah what did I do this month? I really don’t know. But um… I did stuff.

• Okay seriously, what did I do?!
• The first half of the month was fairly uneventful, because Christmas break was weirdly timed here this year (It didn’t start until the 22nd or something, so it lasted quite a ways into January), so nothing was really going on…
• So I sat at home and read.
• And then I got sick.
• NOT fun. I’ve had a couple of colds already this fall/winter, but I’m pretty sure this was the flu. Yuck. I felt gross for weeks.
• Thanks to this brilliantly timed flu, I managed to miss four things in the space of the first three days I was sick, three of which I’d been really looking forward to. Thanks flu.
• Unfortunately the flu did NOT make me miss my dentists appointments… Well, technically one of them did end up having to be rescheduled, but I went to the first one while I was sick. And do you know what’s even less fun than having half your mouth frozen while the dentist sticks a million different tools in there? Having half your mouth frozen while the dentist sticks a million different tools in there, all well you have a sore throat, and keep having the urge to cough. Ugh, ugh, ugh.
• I hate cavities.
• Really really hate them.
• Okay, sorry, I’ll stop complaining about the dentist now.
• On the up side, I discovered ‘A Very Potter Musical’ on Youtube, and I am obsessed! It is SO good, and seriously go watch it!
• I may or may not have watched it three times in January.
• And listened to the soundtrack many more times.
• And watched most of their other musicals as well.
• And did I mention I’m obsessed?
• My public speaking class had our public presentation. Basically that means we all get up and do a speech in front of a small crowd, mostly made out of everyone’s friends and family. Even though it’s open to the public, but nobody else ever comes out…
• This possibly sounds scary and exciting, and it was the first time, but… This is my fourth year, and we do this twice every year. It’s still a lot of fun, but it stopped being anything out of the ordinary long ago.

I guess that pretty much sums up my month. I was sick. I watched A Very Potter Musical. I did things that long ago stopped being anything out of the ordinary to me. And I read. And procrastinated blogging. Yup, it was a real great month.

Oh wow, I failed most of these so bad already! And I was so hopeful back at the beginning of the month when I actually wrote these. Ugh.

I’m going to try setting some goals for February, because I really think I need to get them down in writing, instead of just vaguely having an idea what I want to achieve in the back of my mind. I really don’t have high hopes for it actually working, based on how epically I’ve already failed at all my new years resolutions, but it’s worth a try…

• Post twice a week. Normally I’ve been aiming for three times a week, but February is going to be super busy, and I don’t want to stress myself out too much.
• Catch up on my, uh… fifteen RTC’s, and keep on top of my reviewing. Oh ugh, I’m so bad at this…
• Wake up earlier. Noon is NOT and acceptable time to wake up. But my system got way out of whack while I was sick, so now I’m sleeping in really late.
• Get out of the house more. I’ve been doing better with this lately, and I really want that to continue.
• Stop procrastinating and practise for musical theatre. So, umm… the performance is in, uh… less than three weeks, and I still barely know some of the songs. I don’t have a solo part, so I’m able to just sing along, but… I really should practise more. It’s just that I don’t really like the play we’re doing, and I have other music I’d rather be listening to, and ugh.
• Start that journal I mentioned last month? Maybe…? I really want to, because I love being able to look back on that kind of thing, and I’ve really enjoyed going back and reading the few journal entries I have done. I just don’t love the actual journaling aspect of it.

Okay, this post is waaaayyyyy too long. I will wrap it up now.

How was your January? How many books did you read? Any goals for February? Has anyone else seen A Very Potter Musical? (I need to know somebody else out there has seen it, because nobody I know IRL has!)